Energy Tech Firm Grows to 3.1 MSF in Louisiana
Industrial Realty Group, owner of the 530-acre campus, said the asset is now fully leased.
Global energy technology company SLB is more than doubling its footprint at the 3.5 million-square-foot Shreveport Business Park campus in Shreveport, La., where it manufactures digital infrastructure and data center equipment. The firm agreed to a $30 million expansion and will now occupy 3.1 million square feet.
Industrial Realty Group, which owns the 530-acre site of a former General Motors assembly plant, said the campus is now fully leased. The other tenants on the property are a USPS mail sorting facility and Hyundai Glovis, which finishes Kia and Hyundai cars before they are released to dealerships, according to The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate.
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SLB, then known as Schlumberger, signed a seven-year lease at the site in July 2023, taking 1 million square feet across two buildings in an $18 million investment. The company currently has 820 employees on site and expects there will be 1,200 employees when the expansion is completed by 2027.
Louisiana Economic Development said the SLB expansion could add 744 indirect jobs to the region as well. Located at 7600 Antoine Blvd., the Northwest Louisiana industrial campus is 15 miles from downtown Shreveport and has access to Interstate 20.
IRG estimates the campus will have a total of 1,400 employees among its tenants, compared to 800 people who worked there when the GM plant closed in 2012.
The state of Louisiana offered SLB an incentive package that includes workforce development solutions of LED FastStart and a $6 million performance-based grant for utility and infrastructure improvements. The company is also expected to participate in the state’s Quality Jobs program.
Following the 2012 closure of the GM plant, RACER Trust assumed ownership of the facility that used to produce trucks and sport utility vehicles. A year later, Caddo Parish, through its Industrial Development Board, acquired the site for $7.5 million and contracted with IRG to manage and redevelop the property, according to the newspaper. IRG took ownership of the property last summer.
IRG’s new REIT, adaptive reuse record
IRG, through its affiliated partnerships and limited liability companies, operates a portfolio spanning more than 100 million square feet across 31 states. In May, IRG and Sachem Capital Corp. agreed to form IRG Realty Trust Inc., a top-10 U.S. public industrial REIT with a combined enterprise value of approximately $3.4 billion. Closing is expected later this year.
IRG will contribute 98 of its 200 industrial assets to the REIT, while Sachem will contribute about $470 million of total assets in direct and indirect mortgage loans, real estate investments and other assets. IRG Realty Advisors, IRG’s wholly owned asset management, property management and real estate operating company, will manage the combined portfolio.
IRG, which has a record of transforming underutilized industrial properties in adaptive reuse projects, has leased approximately 4.3 million square feet of vacant space to date in 2026. In April, the company inked a long-term lease with Hyundai Translead for a 1.4 million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Joliet, Ill. The property was previously Caterpillar Inc.’s main manufacturing plant.
Last July, IRG and Provider Real Estate Partners acquired a shuttered mall in Wichita, Kan., with plans to redevelop the 60-acre property into a multi-tenant business park. The $35 million redevelopment calls for a mix of office, research and development, light industrial, advanced manufacturing and flex space.
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